Sacrifice time!
Creative Staff:
Story: Tom Taylor
Art: Marco Failla
Colors: Rex Lokus
Letterer: Saida Temofonte
What They Say:
The senses-shattering conclusion to the epic is here…surrounded by a sea of the undead and led by the Anti-Life Black Adam, can Superman and the remaining Justice League fight their way out?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With this installment this digital-first series draws to a close and takes us near the end of the original miniseries as we know how the events play out after this. Tom Taylor filled in a lot of blanks and killed a lot of people along the way here but knows to keep the hope alive, since it’s in the title, and that’s been there throughout the run. The finale retains Marco Failla on the artwork with Rex Lokus keeping color continuity once again and it’s a pretty solid book. The series has had its own distinctive look from the start and keeping that throughout has worked well and I like it, even if some may say it feels second-tier to your more mainstream books. For me, it’s stylish in its own way and at times reminiscent of books from decades ago where it wasn’t trying to be these crazy detailed works but rather something that tells the story and tells it well.
The idea Lex had to try and deal with the horde of infected really is pretty slick as we get the team inside doing their best to draw in all of them with Piper using his song. Wink’s doing her best to try and find Nightshade to take out but Aerie’s arrival throws things off as she wasn’t expected here, yet it’s not a surprise someone would try to convince them to try and survive this (even if that was part of the plan to begin with). I do like that Wink is struggling to find Nightshade so she can be finished off and seal the place with all of them in here (heaven help anyone who stumbles into this place in the future) but Black Manta throws a wrench in that, which makes it all the more important that Aerie really did show up here. It’s amusing how it plays out in its kind of simple brutality but it fits this kind of end of the world aspect where hard choices are made by everyone.
I also really liked seeing how things were done when it came to working over Black Adam after beating him down enough to overpower him for the moment. Wonder Woman’s the key here with her lasso in holding him but also in getting him to make that rare transformation to his true self in order to really keep him from being a problem. But it’s Superman who steps up in the truly surprising way because this feels like it crosses his do no harm mindset when it comes to others that he values even moreso in struggles like this. But it is the right thing to do in order to deal with him without killing him since even those in the Nightshade realm haven’t been killed. The heroes get to stick to their beliefs for the most part but have to make some hard choices in order to do so. Of course, we know more of the darkness to come from the main series and the sequel series, but for now, there’s hope.
In Summary:
The DCeased line of books really delights me in a way that I can’t express fully. But it’s like the Injustice books in that it’s separate from everything and the creative behind it are freer to try and do new things and that’s what excites me the most. We get some really good stuff throughout this run as characters step up as others die and big plans are made to try and save as many people as possible. Tom Taylor has captured this world really well from the start and this is a great look at a sliver of the story that still leaves me wanting a whole lot more. Hopefully, we’ll see Taylor working more of this world and working with Failla again on it or another project as they’re well-paired in bringing this to life.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology and Amazon Kindle
Release Date: December 1st, 2020
MSRP: $0.99
